The Open Company

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Since a number of my articles on this site have been about going green and being eco-friendly with technology, I thought it fitting to post a link to this new international campaign to solve the global warming crisis.

This past week, I was at a tradeshow in San Jose, California.   The show itself was bordering on boring as it dealt with telecom and was mainly manufacturers but the real current to pay attention to at any tradeshow is the social networking involved.

Before MySpace, before Facebook, before BBS’s, there were tradeshows.  People within a particular community would meet, swap stories, gossip and drinks with their peers and get to know everyone in the business.   It still appears and seems to still be somewhat popular even though the internet has grabbed a lot of that business.

When I was at the show, I was able to put a name to a face.  To shake the other persons hand and get that eye to eye time.  With internet groups, as much fun as it is, it’s just not the same.

My point of this blog / comment is to tell business owners to go out into the real world and meet their peers.  Don’t treat them as competition even if they are.  If you give people a chance, they may surprise you.

I found a this site: http://kluster.com/ recently. It’s crowd sourcing system, done well.

A lots of hype went into it, and I’ll be there’s some good money backing it. I’m interested to see if it is as groundbreaking as it appears to be. So far, I’m pretty impressed!

Ikailo’s recent enthusiasm for green data centers certainly echoes most of the technology sector and the vision for the future. The largest carrier neutral data center network, Equinix, has significantly outperformed the Nasdaq, returning a 2000% profit in only 5 years. (On a side note: I know someone who liquidated his significant equity in Equinix just about 5 years ago… pity him). Data centers are growing in size and popularity, there’s no doubt about it. But, even with this popularity, there’s still the question of other inexpensive, efficient, and secure storage options.

I give this example: Last week I replaced my inlaw’s hard drive that sounded like a woodpecker on steriods… luckily I was able to do the freezer trick and recover all the pictures of their beautiful grandkids that were stored on the disk. Next time, they may not be so lucky. Online data backup solutions have become very popular lately – Mozy, Dell, and Carbonite are some providers. Still many people won’t backup their data online for a three main reasons:

• Cost – there’s something about paying for data security that people don’t get (yet).
• Bandwidth – my wife has 18,000 pictures on her computer. (seriously). 30 days of full time uploading seems like an awful lot of bandwidth.
• Recovery time – If it takes 30 days to upload, I bet it’ll take a heck of a long time to recover my data.

In order to capitalize on the home and small business backup solution, it’s clear that companies will need to offer solutions that are cost effective, use low bandwidth, and offer quick recovery time.

I came across a gem of an idea that might work - develop software that handles backups like torrents – peer-to-peer backups that split redundant (encrypted) data up among multiple nodes of other backup users, saving the data on unused hard drive space of other users. I’ve discovered that there are a few programs that are working towards this idea, but none provide a full solution package as of yet. Pastiche is an innovative software idea (but not developed) that suggests putting backups on other computers that already contain similar data – thereby reducing overall space and bandwidth by simply eliminating duplicate information – files identified as duplicate are not even uploaded – just their location is noted. New research (caution.. tech talk!) suggests that it is even possible build a file from similar, but not identical copies of the file in question, a technique labeled as SET handprinting.

Here’s the gist – combine Pastiche, uTorrent, and SET handprinting and one has a great backup solution that is inexpensive and uses very low bandwidth. Couple that with local “amalgamaters” who can pull the data from its storage locations at speeds in excess of home users, and there’s a system that can’t be beat.

We hear stuff in the news all the time about a company that developed this or that technology that can interact better with humans, or provide better and more intelligent services to humans.

As you might guess, the idea of computers interacting and understanding humans better gets me pretty excited. I’ve always been intrigued with topics such as algorithmically determining what a document is about and how it relates to another document,  whether it is possible for a computer to understand what a person is saying, or if it is possible to teach a computer to carry on a real conversation. 

Well, the “Semantic Web” could potentially make all of this happen. This is essentially an advanced way for a computer to understand what a web page is for, what it does, and how to interact with it - rather than having to have a human interpret and issue the many commands directly (read, click, write, click, read, click some more..).

When Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise issues a command like Evasive Maneuvers, do you think the navigator enters in each coordinate and flies the ship according to a pattern he has memorized? No, that would be quite impossible. In the time it takes a human to react and do that, the Romulans would blast them into nano-particles. I believe that the Computer understands what the Captain is saying, and makes it so.  The navigator then assists the Computer in this effort, creating bond between the human and the Computer.  This is an excellent example of a Semantic application - the Computer interprets and acts accordingly, based solely on the requirements of the Captain and crew.

I could probably write a lot more, but instead I found a cool video giving an introduction to Semantic Web that is probably more interesting.

For geeks like me, this stuff is great.  For everyone else - sit tight - this is the future of the world wide web, and it will change the world as we know it. Enjoy.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=OGg8A2zfWKg]

Thanks to flaptor for drawing my attention to the video.

Waste not, want not. Or so it is said. The question is, can the ‘waste not’ be realized when operating a Green Data Center? If you’re looking to build one with the highest efficiency, here are some pointers and suggestions to help with your planning.

Location: Pick a spot that has the optimum environmental and technological resources nearby. See yesterday’s post for a refresher.

Construction: Use methods that reduce the impact on the local environment. Use non-toxic and low emissions materials for construction. Don’t use more land than you need.

Architecture: Construct a building that is the right size. Install high efficiency integrated heating and cooling for every climate control system - including the heat generated by the PC’s. Add some CO2 reducing foliage and use natural lighting, heating, and cooling systems wherever possible. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to install smart systems that ensure that artificial light is only turned on in areas that are being used.

Speaking of heat - if you have enough excess, it would be interesting to see if it could be put to good uses like to heat steam in a generator to help recover some electricity, or to roast fair trade organic coffee beans. I wonder if that idea is patentable?

Hardware and Software: Invest in liquid cooled, high density servers with centralized heat exchangers and centralized DC power supplies. Conserve and share all the resources on every server by way of virtualization and aggressive power management.

Operational: Utilize green technology for as many company activities as possible. Use hybrid corpoate vehicles and encourage employees to ‘Go Green’ themselves’. Partner with environmentally friendly organizations and donate to Eco-Charities if you are looking for a tax write-off.

While the technology to place all these pieces into a single functioning system is yet to exist (as far as I know), it would certainly be an interesting project to do! If you have any info about how this can be done now, I would love to hear about it.

My prediction is that we will start to see these types of systems being produced commercially within the next 5 - 15 years.. I think that’ll give me enough time to refine my business plan.

My man Yoda once said, “Do or Do Not. There is no try.” in relation to the crybaby Luke Skywalker ‘trying’ to levitate his X-Wing out of the swamps of Dagba (sp?). It’s a saying that has been in the back of mind since I saw the movie but I never really started implementing it till about 3 years ago.

One thing about life is that 90% of us are just ‘trying’ there are only a small amount of those who are doing.. perhaps I should recalculate that. I didn’t figure in the number of people who are not trying at all. And we all know at least one person who just doesn’t try or Do anything at all.

I’m really starting to envy those that ‘Do’. I was searching for ‘recycling businesses in NYC’ to add a link to one of my other sites, www.GreenR3.com, when I came across this gem. I’m sure that Ikailo would find it interesting. What caught my eye about it was that it was a community effort. It shows what people can DO when they put their hearts into something and their minds together. Add a bit of elbow grease and some luck and you have a great concept that can change the way people think.

There is nothing that we as people can’t Do. We just have to put our minds to it and ask for the odd little bit of help.

So if you’re a Do’er, then kudos to you and thanks for making the world a better place. If you’re a Tryer, then that’s cool too. but if you’re a lump on the log, watching the world go by and blaming everyone else for your problems, then perhaps it’s time to take a step back or at least get an honest opinion of yourself from someone else.

My interest in Data Centers, particularly ones of the ‘Green’ variety, was peaked recently by a friend who claimed that the government of Canada is giving away $500,000 grants to companies starting Green Data Centers.

Half a million bucks is nothing to sneeze at (unless your company name rhymes with oogle), so I started some investigation as to where I would build MY data center. Lo and behold, as it turns out, the best place to build a data center in North America is in Kelowna, British Columbia!

Now, I’m particular partial to the Okanagan Valley. Spending 10 years of one’s life there can do that to a person, and this certainly sweetens the pot for me! To quote a long time and well respected Kelownian, “Every day living here is like another day in Paradise”. The climate couldn’t be better. Average temperatures in the Summer hover around 28 C / 82 F and in the Winter around 0 C / 32 F. There are excellent ski and snowboarding venues, beautiful vineyards, gourmet restaurants, and terrific beaches nearby - among other things to entice one to stay.

Enough about the fun. Let’s talk business! Placement of a data center is no easy task. One must consider these factors, and more:

• Stable Environment
• Plentiful and Cheap Power Sources
• Large Data Networking Pipes
• Abundance of Talented Labour

It seems like Kelowna has it all. IBM seems to think so anyway, and it’s not surprising that Google and Microsoft are building data centers just down the road (well, a little further South).

Building a Green and Eco-Friendly Data Center adds a little more to the mix, but analysts are saying that it is a benefit to everyone in the long run. I guess it couldn’t be too bad for the environment either. Tomorrow’s post will be about my technological vision for a highly advanced Green Data Center - stay tuned.

Real Estate prices are skyrocketing in the Okanagan, so you’d better jump on the next train going west and stake your claim now. Who knows, maybe we’ll be neighbours!

I read an interesting theory recently about the reasons why we dream.

The hypothesis is that while we dream, we are rehearsing perceived real threats and determining an optimal response to them in hopes that if we encounter that threat again in real life, we can act using our instincts rather than wasting precious time to think about it.

It provides reasoning for why scary movies give some people nightmares, or why one might wake up in the middle of the night knowing a solution to a problem. It also adds importance to getting enough sleep and having dreams.

If a big decision is to be made, perhaps ’sleeping on it’ is the best plan of action.